gnawing off (the remains)
by AlunaGray
Summary: Where Armin Arlert was once a ferocious dark-haired boy with a penchant for fighting, tonfas and protecting what was his. This...changes everything. A Shingeki no Kyojin and Katekyo Hitman Reborn crossover story. AU. Short chapters.
1. 1

**Summary:** Where Armin Arlert was once a ferocious dark-haired boy with a penchant for fighting, tonfas and protecting what was _his_. This...changes everything. A Shingeki no Kyojin and Katekyo Hitman Reborn crossover story. AU. Short chapters.

 **Disclaimer:** Shingeki no Kyojin and Katekyo Hitman Reborn are not mine.

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 **1.**

Armine Arlert wasn't always Armin Arlert.

He was-

(a black-haired boy with biting gray eyes. Someone with monstrous stamina that craved peace and implemented it in the only way he knew how.)

He wasn't blond. Blue-eyed. A boy with a weak body and a ferocious mind.

He was-

(strong, frighteningly so that he was called a demon on a daily basis as he tried to reinforce discipline in the territory he called his.)

He wasn't weak and bullied and hopelessly behind the others.

He was-

(a carnivore, with hundreds - no thousands of people in the underworld fearing his name and reputation.)

Armin Arlert was once a different person. So achingly unlike who he was now with the strength, prowess, and will rivaling and surpassing even the greatest of men.

Yet somehow, very much the same, with their similar beliefs, principles and that niggling - screaming need not be caged from anything and everything.

Armin Arlert was once a cloud. One who could crank out pretty purple flames and injure with a nary a sweat on their body as the people who destroy the peace.

Now-

Now he was well- no one. Someone with a herbivorous - almost infuriatingly weak body that was nothing more than a liability. A body that couldn't- _wouldn't_ heed the instincts that made him different in his past life. A body that didn't have the talent and skill that once was _ingrained_ in who he was and who he came to be.

But Armin Arlert wasn't once Hibari Kyoya - the strongest guardian of the greatest mafia organization of a place that was once called Italy - for no reason.

He had his mind as his weapon, and his teeth and claws could be sharpened with time.

No matter their differences, Armin, even at a young age, knew he was a carnivore.

What he wanted, with enough will, he could _get_.

And if he bloody damned wanted to go out and escape the walls - Armin Arlert would with any means necessary.

Anyone who said otherwise and got on his way would get bitten to _death_.


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**2.**

Armin was with Eren and Mikasa when the wall fell.

It was chaos and everything his previous self would have lived for-

Something he himself _, as_ he was now, would have lived _for,_ if only just to see the bigger world as it once was - as he did sometimes in his previous self's memories.

If only it hadn't come at such a heavy cost.

Eren's mother died and the Titans - disgusting, horrifying creatures that they were, destroyed everything in Shinganshina district until there's nothing left but _rubble._

The Armored Titan - a monster that stood apart the rest, aptly named with its armor of muscles wrapped around its body like a gift - made sure of that, as the inner gate separating Shiganshina and the district within Wall Maria broke, before the huge Titan inexplicably disappeared.

(Armin would marvel more at the intelligence - the challenge the Armored Titan presented and the _abilities_ it's capable of if he wasn't so terrified by the abrupt turn of events. After all, enough practice and experience could keep the other Titans to heel since much of their power lies in their number, size and the sheer amount of force the combination of the two aforementioned qualities granted their sexless bodies. But an _Armored_ Titan? a monster built for combat with intelligence on par of a human if Armin's conjectures right, and supernatural capabilities to boot was a worthwhile problem he could dedicate himself to unraveling bit by _bit_.)

(But Armin was separated with Eren and Mikasa on the way to Trost and Armin had his grandfather to take care of. The problems pile up one by one, and Trost-)

(-Trost wasn't a very nice place. Living with the resentment was difficult and Armin hated the _herbivores_ that made up this district. Decency was null, apparently, in place of emerging starvation and, even if Armin was trying his best, people had not much use for a wimpy kid and an old man when there were other able bodies to choose from.)

(Mikasa and Eren, once they've reunited, was helping as much as they've could, but they have to feed themselves and the situation wasn't getting any better.)

Armin thought it couldn't get any worse, until the one they called king, the one who was supposed to care for their safety, sent the people outside of Trost to retake Wall Maria.

(Armin didn't need to be a genius to see that the only outcome of such endeavor would be a slaughter. The _king_ was culling the herd so to speak, to solve the food shortage, the lack of space inside the walls and the discontent of the Trost citizens in one horribly logical move.)

His grandfather fit the requirements, considering his age and weakening body, and Armin- Armin _couldn't_ let that happen.

(He was the only family Armin had left and if there was anything his previous had left him, it was to fight tooth and nail for the people he called _his_. So-)

Armin fought. He did everything to protest his grandfather's participation, trying to injure the Garrison _soldiers_ as much as he could and going as far as offering himself as a substitute instead when his hits didn't work. But his grandfather was stubborn and with Mikasa and Eren's help, Armin was restrained before the _scums_ that called themselves protectors could put Armin down themselves.

(He never loathed his pathetically weak body as much as he did that moment.)

As he nursed his wounds, as all was finished and done, as the gates of Trost shut _down_ , Armin promised one thing to himself.

He'll destroy _them_ in every way possible - _completely_ until not a single thing was _left_.

His previous-self was a vindictive piece of shit when he wanted to be.

And Armin- Armin was _worse_.

(Their _deaths_ wouldn't satisfy him.)

(Nothing less but their utter _destruction_ would do.)


	3. 3

**3.**

Living in the streets was difficult. Despite the _culling_ , there wasn't anyone willing to take three children in.

Not when they have trouble adjusting to the new threat - to the wariness that became the norm in their society now.

Not when they're from the _Shinganshina_ district - a place that housed those who weren't good enough to be put in Wall Rose. Those inside Wall Maria were barely even tolerated and during these times when hopelessness threatens and there's nothing to turn to but blind belief and regressing superstitions-

They're considered bad luck.

Despite their less than favorable circumstances, all of them fought to survive with a ferocity that belied their appearance. Eren for revenge on the Titans that killed his mother, Mikasa for Eren, and _Armin-_

Armin lived for _retribution_.

They managed to wheedle up space from the shed of an inn owned by an old woman with a particularly acerbic tongue. In exchange for cleaning up their place and helping in the day to day work, they get to sleep another day without their throat getting slit or Mikasa being taken by smugglers enamored with Asian exotic blood.

It wasn't bad per se. It was a tight fit, but it was a damn far better one after sleeping on pissed alleys filled with desperate people on the shady side of the spectrum.

They ate, work, slept and eventually, fell into a routine that wasn't exactly comfortable, no, but it was just enough to get by.

(Armin, Eren, and Mikasa couldn't ask for anything more, actually, considering how their life's pretty cushy compared to people who eventually succumbed and sold, not only their body but their soul to others if it meant they could live at least a day more.)

They bided their time and patiently waited for the time to sign up for military training - each entering with reasons of their own.

Armin would like to say that life became better after that, but he would be lying.

The Cadet Corps was-

It was full of cowards and gluttons that thought of nothing, but themselves.

Full of _herbivores_ that he wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole if only they didn't play a part in his plans.

(Even the criminals in Trost were better than they were because, at least they were _honest_ in their deception, but these _people-_ )

(-they're wasting the military's resources with the aim of serving _a faithless_ king, saving their hides and prettying it up with ambitions of serving the kingdom and its people to the best of their abilities.)

('Fools.' Armin thought sharply, even as he smiled cheerfully, gently at the people as they bantered among themselves. 'Fools all of them are.')

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 **A/N:** I started a new fic again. Sorry. This would quite short though - about 10,000 words or so. Let me know what you think. (Buy me coffee? Search AlunaGray in kofi's website. If not, well- reviews would be nice. Thanks for reading.)


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